Eddie's little secret
by Laudamus9
Summary: With Eddie R. Lawson in jail, and Hankmed taking a turn for the better again, Hank feels like he's back on his feet. But what happens when he discovers a secret of Eddie's? ... Told from a new characters perspective and from Hanks.
1. Chapter 1

**Please bear in mind that I'm starting with a new character, that I made up, but don't worry, there will be a lot of Hank and Evan. I tried over and over again to start from their perspective, but honestly this story is from my characters perspective and it just wouldn't work. I hope you enjoy this, as much as I enjoyed thinking about this for weeks before actually putting it on paper ;)**

Olivia stared across the beach, looking at the waves, but not really seeing them. Her best friend Ava had run quickly to the store to grab them some lunch and Olivia found herself sitting on the beach and thinking over how she had gotten to the Hamptons. She hadn't even told Ava yet, though Ava knew something was going on. She was, however, patient enough to wait for Olivia to tell her. It was not a normal occurrence for them to spend the summer together, they normally only saw each other at school. However, Olivia had called Ava in June and asked if she could spend the summer with her in the Hamptons. Ava had been ecstatic; summers were hard for her. Her parents were barely around and she spent most of her time trying to distract herself until school began again. Olivia had been relieved and had left on the first bus to see her; that had been nearly two months ago.

Olivia dug her toes in the sand; she didn't want to think about home, just to focus on the warm sand between her toes. She had spent her time in the Hamptons refusing to think about the spring, refusing to think about what she would do after the summer. She didn't know where she would go. Ava would go back to school and Olivia wouldn't; she couldn't. It was easier to think ahead, in some ways, to try and plan her next move, but sometimes it allowed her mind to drift back to why she was worrying about the future in the first place. Sometimes the memories came unexpectedly, a smell perhaps or maybe a song and they would hit her with such force that she forgot her surroundings entirely and be transported back home.

She let out a slow shudder and buried her face in her bent knees, pulling them tightly to herself. She was glad Ava was gone for the moment, as she was struggling to gain control of herself. If she cried now, she might never stop. She had cried a couple times and felt her whole world collapsing in on her; she hadn't been able to gain control for hours. She wouldn't let that happen now.

"Hey you," a voice spoke from behind her, snapping Olivia back to reality. She let go of her death grasp on her knees and turned toward Ava.

"I brought you your favorite sub," Ava was saying, a cheerful expression on her face, "hopefully once we get some protein in you, you'll feel better."

Olivia had told Ava that she needed to sit down, because her blood sugar had dropped suddenly. She was normally better about keeping it consistent and so she felt irritated with herself. It was then that Ava had volunteered to get them both some food. Olivia had felt bad, but she let her go, she needed the food after all.

Now Ava was fixing their towels and setting the food out, she paused in her efforts and looked at Olivia, her blue eyes piercing, "What are you going to do when school starts? We only have a month left."

Olivia stared at her a little surprised, but not very much so. Ava knew her very well, better than almost anyone and she had evidently connected all the dots.

"I don't know," Olivia said.

Hank heard his phone ring, breaking him from a rather deep slumber. He searched blindly for the annoying sound, 'who would be calling at this hour?' he wondered.

"Yes," he said, answering in a scratchy morning voice.

The voice on the other end spoke hurriedly and Hank listened closely, slowly coming to full attention,

"No, it's good that you called. It doesn't sound serious," he answered and then continued, "but I'll head over to check it out, just in case. No, no problem Tucker. Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can." Hank hung up hurriedly. He had meant what he said when he had said that he didn't think it was serious, but he needed to see for himself and so he hurried to get ready.

When Hank pulled into Tuckers driveway, he saw a couple cars parked near the entrance. Tucker had informed Hank that he had a couple friends over to hang out and it seems one of them had gotten hurt somehow, though no one was really sure what happened.

He pulled in and Tucker, who was probably waiting near the door, hurriedly walked over to meet Hank.

He falls into an easy stride by his side, "She's in the sitting room," he says, "I feel bad for calling you out here, she says she's not really in pain, but it looks horrible and I wanted to make sure."

"It's okay Tucker," Hank says, "You did the right thing."

Tucker looks relieved as he hurriedly brings Hank inside.

Hank notices some guys playing Ping-Pong, as they walk in. Tucker acknowledges them briefly before ushering Hank down a long hallway.

Olivia fidgets, worried about Ava. Her arm looks terrible; she wonders when the doctor will arrive. Tucker had gone outside to wait.

"It's okay Olivia," Ava says, "he won't even think twice about you."

Olivia looks up surprised, "I wasn't even thinking about me," she says, her expression hurt, "how could you think that? I've been worried this whole time about you."

"Calm down, Olivia," Ava quickly interjects, her look apologetic, "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that you didn't care, I just didn't want you to worry about that on top of this."

Olivia looked sheepish.

"I know you better than that," Ava finished, squeezing Olivia's' hand with her good arm.

Just then Tucker and the doctor walked around the corner and into the room.

"This is Hank," Tucker said, " and Hank, this is Ava and Olivia," he said introducing him to the two girls.

Hank stopped dead in his tracks, his expression completely nonplussed, "Olivia?"

Now it was Olivia's turn to stare, her look confused, "Do I know you?"

"Gosh, no, sorry… I," he shook his head, as if to clear it, "Sorry, let me start over, but I should probably examine Ava first," he said, still reeling, not really sure what he should do.

Ava stopped him when he approached, "My arm can wait. What's going on?" Her look was worried.

Hank sat down, "let me see your arm first and if it isn't serious, I'll continue what I was saying," he said, suddenly professional.

Ava reluctantly agreed. It took some minutes and to Olivia who wasn't sure if she should run or wait, it seemed like an eternity.

"Well, it's not broken and it's not a sprain," Hank said, "but it's quite discolored and swollen. It could be a number of things. You'll need to see some specialists to get to the bottom of this," he said, "but it doesn't appear to be anything serious."

The kids all look relieved.

Once he was finished putting things away, he sat on the couch across from Olivia and Ava; Tucker joined him, "I'm not too sure where to begin. I only just found out this summer," he said, "I got a phone call from social services," on these words Olivia got up as if to run, "Wait," he said, getting up quickly to blocking her exit, "they called to tell me that I had a sister that I never knew about," he inserted. Olivia's eyebrows rose in surprise and she paused, "they then informed me that she had run away from foster care. They sent me her information, Olivia; your information."

Now Olivia looked shocked, she sat down, her expression confused, "My mom never told me I had a brother," she said.

"Two actually," Hank clarified, "and I'm not sure she knew. You see we have the same Father, but different mothers."

"That makes sense," Olivia said, "He didn't stick around for too much of my life. He left when I was three, so I 'm not sure how much she knew about his life before us."

"But," Olivia said, her face troubled, "what does this mean for me?"

"Well," Hank said, "I talked it over with Evan and we had agreed, that if we found you, Olivia, you would live with us. If you want to, that is," he said.

Olivia looked surprised and Hank continued, "I know this is a lot to take in and Evan and I have had a couple months to adjust to the fact, but I'm afraid your options are limited and we would love to have you."

"Um, who's Evan?" Olivia said, her mind snagging on that one detail.

"Sorry, Evan is my brother, well your brother too," he said, still shaking his head as if to sort things properly.

Olivia was quiet for a minute, mulling things over, "I don't really know either of you, but you're right, I don't have much in the way of options and it is not everyone who would take in a complete stranger, " she said, "plus, I've gotten to know Tucker some this summer and he speaks very highly of you," she glanced over at Tucker when she said this.

Tucker, who had been silent this entire exchange, spoke, his expression thoughtful "Yeah, Liv, Hank is a good man."

"Thanks Tucker," Hank said, quietly; touched.

Olivia looked at Ava, "Well, I guess I don't need to worry about the school year anymore."

**Well, I'm sorry if it was corny or choppy. I swear it will get better, as the part of the story I've been impatient to write is coming soon! Any comments on how I can improve this and on how I'm doing are most appreciated. This has been written and re-written over again 6 times, so I realized I just needed to get it out there.**


	2. Chapter 2

Olivia woke up on the morning of her third week there, she gazed at the clock; 3:00am. She 'sighed', frustrated. It had taken her until midnight to fall asleep and now she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. She wondered if she should lie in bed for the next two hours, or if she should do something. She opted for the latter idea and hopped out of bed. It never occurred to her to talk to anyone about her inability to sleep. If her mother was still alive, she would have picked up on it right away. However, Hank and Evan didn't know her well enough to gauge her moods. She was terribly quiet to them. Evan especially didn't know what to think of it and was more tactless than usual; if that was possible. Olivia came to realize that it was just his nature to be blunt and she would often find herself about to smile, until she remembered herself. With her mother gone, she felt it was wrong to be happy for some reason, as if being so would imply she was happy without her.

Taking one of her sketchbooks out, Olivia took it to her desk. She pulled her lamp close to be able to see by, not daring to turn her light on, in case someone saw it from the hall. As much as she hated not being able to sleep, Olivia loved to draw and found it was one of the rare opportunities that she could be herself and not be worried about what anyone was thinking. Her brothers were wonderful, but  
>Olivia was reticent to reveal much about herself. Part of it was her fear of getting close to anyone again, because if she didn't let them in, then she would never be hurt again and part of it was because she was afraid that she would mess up somehow and they wouldn't want her. She had to be perfect, she couldn't make any mistakes and as a result, she was exhausted in every way. When she drew, everything fell away.<p>

She pulled her pencils out of the drawer and opened her sketchbook to her latest drawing. It had been a challenge, because she wasn't able to sit and draw the figure in person, but had to do it from her memory. As she slowly drew the pencil across the paper, she became lost in the world of her making.

She was just finishing one of her more challenging features, the eyes, when she noticed that the sky was beginning to lighten. She rubbed her neck; she had been struggling with this eye, for at least a half an hour. She was frustrated, because she was not able to convey as much as she wanted. The eyes were windows into a persons' soul and so it was with great care that she went about creating them. She glanced at her bedside clock; 5:00am. She finished one last detail before she put her stuff away.

After pulling on some running clothes, Olivia stared at herself in mirror. She barely recognized the person staring back at her. Her dark circles were continuing to get worse. 'Thank God, for make-up,' she thought, as she began to apply some very heavily to her under-eyes. "There," she said quietly, as she applied the finishing touches. Somewhat satisfied, she then pulled her unruly curls into a ponytail and carrying her shoes headed out the door.

Olivia felt her legs stretch into a nice easy gait as she ran. She was set free once more. The crisp air brushed lightly against her skin and she could smell the morning dew, as her feet beat a steady rhythm against the pavement. Soon she began to feel the kinks working their way out of her legs and she picked up the pace. It wasn't long before she was making her way off the grounds of 'Shadow Pond' and was headed towards the beach.

Hank heard her leave, just as he did every morning. However, after the first day, he knew what she was doing. That morning, she had tried to go without waking anyone, however, Hank, being such a light sleeper, came down the stairs to see what she was going on. Finding her leaving, He had nearly flipped a lid, thinking she was trying to run away. She had apologized profusely, saying she just liked to go for an early morning run. He had felt foolish and let her go, but he waited up until she got back. After a couple mornings of her running, he didn't worry about whether she would return or not. He had other things to worry about instead. He had talked with Evan, with Jill and even Divya; he wasn't sure what to do. He knew grief took time, but he wasn't sure if he should leave her be and let her move on at her own pace, or if he should try to get her to go to counseling. Jill thought counseling couldn't hurt, but Evan wasn't so sure it was a good idea. He was worried that Olivia would be upset if they suggested it and that it might hurt their already tenuous relationship with her. Divya was on board with Jill, but said that Evan might have a point and that they should be careful how they approached the counseling route.

He rolled over and glanced at the clock; 5:15am. That was another thing, Olivia was waking up really early and she didn't seem to go to bed any earlier than them either. He heard her up as late as Evan many nights, sometimes until 1 or 2 in the morning. He knew he was going to have to step in and be firm and figure out what was going on. It was not like him to be anything but forthcoming, but with Olivia he felt at sea. He had never had a little sister and now he had to act as both father and brother to her, a role he had with Evan. However, Olivia had a completely different personality than Evan and there was something so fragile and vulnerable about her. He just felt at a complete loss with her sometimes. He knew Evan had noticed too, because he would give Him these weird looks sometimes. He realized that he was going to have to stop walking around on eggshells and start acting like himself and get things done. Olivia did not know what she was going to be in for, when she got back from her run.


End file.
